A return to Badcon in the majesty of Victorian spendor that is Burton Town Hall.
I had decided to play Renatio et Gloriam after enjoying the ECW/30 Years War theme at Derbym
The theme was Easy, which could include anything between Sweden to Japan, and since my Senguko Samurai have been moved to ReG with their own list as their original clan of Uesugui Kinshen, I decided it was time to risk it.
My list
A few changes from my classic MeG Samurai, everyone bar the Robin are middle armed, generals are better, more cavalry and a stonking great unit of Exceptional foot.
OOhhh yay!
Or...
'How many elephants!'
'How many exceptional armoured expert swordsman cavalry!' (Only two, but they do have superior cavalry to assist).
My village fell left, John had his artillery on a convient hill (seams to happen a lot in ReG) and on the right a pair of forests secured the flank.
My plan...
You think I had a plan?
Survive?
Kill some stuff?
Try not to lose too badly?
This is John, who went on to win the whole thing, I don't often beat him, and there's 9 elephants out there. In ReG they are utterly brutal, and man was I going to suffer.
Uesugui get 'forced march' which means the whole army gets a free move before the game starts, and being fleet of foot across the board puts me in the enemies faces early on.
As you can see, John's exceptional cavalry has torn through one of my Samurai cavalry units in short order. (0-2)
With cavalry in my backfield, my only option is to get involved, quickly, as they will soon turn and hit me in the back. My other two cavalry, however, are doing stirling work holding up the rest of his line. On the right, the first of three elephant units is deployed ready to crush me.
You know you are in trouble when your only reserve to face exceptional cavalry is poor arquibusiers! Surprise, they do more damage than the superior cavalry, but lasted about a turn too (2-4).
My cavalry hold on, out numbered, out classed, but hanging on in there like real troopers!
Catch, kill, the Samurai destroy the next cavalry in front of the hill (4-2) and then the artillery behind, now eye up the tasty bows behind. Not to be out done, Ashugaru join in. (John's camp had been removed for safety, he kept knocking it off, but it was there behind the bows, honest). On the left of shot, my troops vainly try to engage elephants (4-4)
The other elephants with a double red dispose of one of my units. (4-6) as the bad exceptional cavalry come in to assist John.
Big ruck on the left. My Ronin had evaporated here, allowing John to reposition at will (6-8).
Sticking with what little plan I had, I advance on John's artillery line, catching cavalry on the way.
A short exchange of units later and I'm teatering in the brink (6-10) and with ReG the collapse is sudden as KaBs are much more lethal (6-15).
Against John, a 6-15 loss was a pretty good result. My cavalry held on, my foot were into his reserve, I just had nothing to deal with those elephants. Great game, John deserved the win, and his competition win was not surprising as that was an awesome list.
I had played Neil's variant of the list the week previously, so was fairly confident that I could repeat the win, maybe not 15-0 again, but I at least knew what was coming. Keils. Lots of Keils. Heavy heavy foot. Best avoided.
Terrain (and my units as I didn't need to move) Secure flanks left if forests, biiig open spaces, a rocky ground and my village appeared. Nice, tight gap for my army. Tally ho!
My forced march, plus enemy light horse with 'pathfinder' resulted in a first round charge by my Ashugaru!
Seriously, first round charge! That's insane. What's even more insane, Martin rolled a 1 to evade
Hold on, no Keils... Erm... What? Eh? The backbone of this army, and they're not here. Oh, yes he had gone mounted, a few units of barricaded shot, lots of artillery, more knights and a superior knight, plus a unit with a battalion gun in a fortress. Different.
Anyway, back to the charge.
"Come here! SMACK!!
Light horse get given a rather bloody nose. I take a wound, he looses a base!
Turn two, and... Yes, a flank charge by one of my superior Samurai units into the Venetian lancers flank. Against the light horse my Ashugaru lose a base, but the Venetians suffer another.
Charging lancers frontally with loose foot is painful, and I lose a base, but the flank is warming up
At the other end of the central battle line, another lancer unit meets an average Ashugaru while my exceptional foot eye up a unit of their own while Ashugaru meet superior knights.
On the far left, my other superior Samurai and my Ronin steal into the forest, to find a wall of barricades and Venetian foot. However, my Ronin have found an open side, and position carefully around it, while the Samurai take a more, direct, approach. Martin had put his units a base and half back from the forest edge, so any shooting would be (and was) largly ineffective. The Samurai parked at 0.0000000001mm from their charge victims. You can see the masses mount up in the cavalry as my flank charge chews in.
In the centre, meeting two units of Venetian lancers, my exceptional foot take on one. Joined by Ashugaru fighting the superior knights, who take two wounds compared to my one!
Over to the.right, betwixt dodging cannon shots for from the Venetian gun line, my units keep up a campaign of trying to stay away and catch sight of two more lancer units, despite losing a few wounds, it looks good for us.
On the far left, my other superior Samurai and my Ronin steal into the forest, to find a wall of barricades and Venetian foot. However, my Ronin have found an open side, and position carefully around it, while the Samurai take a more, direct, approach. Martin had put his units a base and half back from the forest edge, so any shooting would be (and was) largly ineffective. The Samurai parked at 0.0000000001mm from their charge victims. You can see the masses mount up in the cavalry as my flank charge chews in.
The light horse break (2-0), the resulting KaBs will be brutal to Martin's horse line.
Waiting for those knights to do something...
Superior knights take a beating from average long spear swordsmen! The Exceptionals (elite of the army) fail to do much.
The cavalry line shatters and collapses (4-0) and the other unit is in big trouble.
In the forest, lined up for the charge, my superior, unprotected, Ronin, get ready to pile in while teh superior Samurai lurk menacingly behind the flank.
Off we go! The result is shattering, my frontal charge by the Ronin takes two wounds, but between my two units we kill three bases in a phase.
The third cavalry unit collapses (6-0) and my Ashugaru sweep in, leaving their flank exposed rather to more lancers. The exceptionals take a base and a wound, but facing two cavalry units do a lot of hits in return. To their right, the average ashugaru kill a base and still do not take a wound, despite Martin rolling green dice to my whites!
Samurai cavalry vs Venetian knights, the result is rather one sided as both units of the Doge's boys leg it! (10-0)
The Ronin and Samuri finish off the Venitians, and eye up the next unit, which has sensibly decided to try to move away.
Fluffy himself, uprgraded to Legendary status, shows his prowess, slicing through a whole file of the enemy. Behind, a unit of Venetian cavalry has lost a base and a bit from Kabs. To their right, my Ashugaru fight on.
There used to be a Venitian army here! The cavalry and knights to our front both break, leaving me with a massive 15-0 victory.
Martin really had really bad luck, and my army and my ReG games keeps its 50% success rate. I now have 21 points for the weekend, and a night at Andy's (those who read my blog know what that means) ahaead.
Martin really had really bad luck, and my army and my ReG games keeps its 50% success rate. I now have 21 points for the weekend, and a night at Andy's (those who read my blog know what that means) ahaead.
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